“Personal responsibility”: The Munich abuse report has had severe consequences; only personnel were missing – until now.
The Munich abuse report has personal consequences a good two months after its presentation: the church judge Lorenz Wolf is giving up his offices.
“I am aware of my own responsibility in this context and I also stand up for it,” said Wolf in a 19-page statement that the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising published on its website on Monday. “I recognize that I have played an important role in the archdiocese and in the Catholic Church in Bavaria and beyond, and that I therefore have to take on personal responsibility.”
Marx accepts the resignation
He asks the chairman of the Freising Bishops’ Conference, Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx, “to hand over the tasks of the head of the Bavarian Catholic Office so that they can be fulfilled unencumbered by the allegations that are being made,” writes Wolf. “The same applies to the office of official.”
According to a statement, Marx accepted the resignation of his longtime official immediately and “with immediate effect”. He also announced that he would “ask the Bavarian bishops for their approval of Wolf’s release as head of the Catholic Office”.
The lawyers at the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) hold Wolf in their report published in January, which assumes at least 497 victims and 235 alleged perpetrators and at the same time a significantly higher number of unreported cases, misconduct as a church lawyer when processing cases of sexual abuse in the archdiocese . Specifically, they speak of twelve cases with “cause for criticism”. He also acted too much in favor of the priests and perpetrators and too little in the interests of the victims and sometimes too skeptical towards them.
In his new statement, however, Wolf repeats allegations against these experts: He writes of an “incomprehensible mixture of facts, allegations, pejorative assessments and questionable conclusions”, resolutely rejects numerous allegations and emphasizes that in many cases they are not responsible at all or not to have been entrusted with the matter.
In the now famous case of the repeat offender Priest H., against whom Wolf conducted criminal proceedings under canon law in 2016 and decided, for example, that he was no longer allowed to exercise his priestly office but should remain a clergyman, Wolf largely rejects allegations of misconduct.
Highest ecclesiastical judge in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising
Since 1997, Prelate Wolf was the official highest church judge in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. He also headed the Catholic Office in Bavaria – the liaison office for all dioceses in the Free State for politics. Most recently, he had let his offices – including that of chairman of the Bavarian Broadcasting Council – rest.
“I hope that I have served the purpose of avoiding any further damage to those affected by the abuse and to the church as far as I can,” Wolf writes about his final withdrawal.
“It is a disgrace that sexual abuse has even happened in the church and that too little has been done to prioritize the victims of sexual abuse over the protection of the institution and officials.” He confesses that he “did not side with the victims in a sustainable enough manner” – and that he followed other leaders rather than his own convictions.
“Too much taken on the role of mediator”
“Today I reproach myself for not trying more stubbornly to enforce my position in individual cases in relation to perpetrators more consistently, be it in church bodies or towards individual leaders,” writes the cathedral dean. “My biggest mistake was probably that I often took on the role of mediator too much instead of insisting on my own point of view.”
This withdrawal was preceded by vehement demands from politics: A “trustful cooperation” with him as head of the Bavarian Catholic Office is “currently unimaginable”, for example the Greens in the state parliament had emphasized.
Cardinal Marx had also asked Wolf to take a position and even given him an ultimatum. Now he thanked his long-time official for “this far-reaching and respectable decision, through which you take personal responsibility in relation to the handling of cases of sexual abuse in the archdiocese”.
The Catholic reform movement “We are Church” announced that Wolf’s withdrawal deserves “respect, especially his confession that he did not side with the victims sustainably enough”. Others should take this as an example, said “We are Church” spokesman Christian Weisner: “Like him, other current and former personnel managers in Germany should also acknowledge their legal and, above all, moral responsibility.” So far, Wolf’s withdrawal is the only known personal consequence of the Munich report.
Source: Stern
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